Volcanoes were top on the list of things to study when the girls found out that Mt. Fuji was actually a volcano. We decided to work together on a lapbook from Homeschool Share. Lapbook components that we studied and used were: parts of a volcano, volcanologist, who’s going to blow, trivia game, inside a volcano, exploding volcano (scholastic pull-tab), volcano phases, vocabulary words, ring of fire, types of rocks, and the earth’s plates.

Our “art” project was to build our own volcano. The kids were far too excited to see how it would explode in our backyard.

On Monday we made some salt dough and formed a volcano using a tea bottle and a cardboard box. I based the model we made from this one that I found through a google search.

The dough took a few days to dry, so on Wednesday we were able to paint it together. I outlined a few areas for the girls and they worked together to paint it to make it look more like a scene/cutaway of a volcano. When they were done with the base painting, they let Mommy drip red paint around the ledge of the volcano to make it look like lava was dripping down the sides of the mountain.

Here is our completed project in action. Be warned: Screaming toddler and swinging lens cap may disrupt your viewing pleasure.

• National Geographic for Kids Volcano Game – interactive flash game
• Fema for Kids – games, volcano facts, volcano watch and more
• Discovery Kids – rotating 3-D global perspective, build your own volcano
• National Geographic Kids – flash slideshow on volcanoes
• Kids Geo – very extensive descriptions with some great pictures
• Weather Kids – lesson plans, matching games, and experiments
• Teachnology – great resource for worksheets and lesson plans

• And a super cool video we found on YouTube that the kids have been singing all week: